The present invention relates to a stabilizer for an ultrasonic dental cleaning tip and more paticularly to a stabilizer which prevents undesired motion of the water nozzle of the ultrasonic cleaning device.
Ultrasonic dental cleaning devices which have both a scaling tip and a water nozzle in close proximity to one another are well known in the art. These tips are used to clean teeth. The longitudinal vibration of the scaling tip may be provided by d.c. pulse as a.c. excitation of a magnetostrictive stack. These tips provide an effective means for cleaning teeth. They do not have certain problems and shortcomings.
The cooling water nozzle is movable and hence it can inadvertently contact the scaling tip causing the water nozzle to vibrate. The water nozzle has an arcuate configuration such that when in use a portion of the water nozzle tends to contact the mouth tissue of the patient while the point of the scaling tip is positioned on the tooth itself. If the nozzle contacts the tip, the ultrasonic vibration of the tip is transmitted to the patient's tissue through the nozzle and can cause tissue burn through transmission of the ultrasonic energy directly to the tissue involved.
Furthermore, the end opening of the water nozzle is positioned immediately adjacent to the curved surface of the tip so that the water can flow over the tip directly onto the tooth surface being worked so that appropriate cooling and removal of dirt and scale will be effected. The flexible water nozzle may at times contact the tip and the ultrasonic vibrations of the tip against the water nozzle can cause a groove to be cut by the contact point of the end of water nozzle into the surfact of the tip so that the tip is weakened and is caused to break off.
The flexible nature of the very small diameter water nozzle which permits adjustment of the water nozzle by the operator also results in the water nozzle at times moving from its proper position immediately adjacent to the scaling tip so that the water does not flow properly over the scaling tip. For this reason and in order to avoid contact between the water nozzle and the scaling tip, the user must manually adjust the water nozzle. This adjustment at times causes the nozzle to be bent and as it is bent and as it is bent back into position a kink occurs in the nozzle which makes it increasingly difficult to properly position and use the water nozzle.
In addition, the positioning of the water nozzle, particularly where there is a kink in it, tends to cause the water nozzle to contact the shield around the scaling tip. When this occurs concurrently with the water nozzle being in contact with the scaling tip, ultrasonic vibrations are transmitted to the shield and ultimately to the hand of the user of the dental cleaning device thereby causing the device to become uncomfortably hot and indeed even causing tissue burn if the user does not simply stop using the device or readjust the nozzle. In addition, this contact between tip, nozzle and shield generates a harsh, distracting, highly undesirable noise.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an ultrasonic cleaning and scaling device in which the improper transmission of ultrasonic energy to the water tube and to the shield is avoided.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide such a device as minimizes the problem of the improper positioning of the water tube and the improper contact between the water tube and the scaling tip as well as improper contact between the water tube and the shield.
As a consequence of obtaining these structural objectives, it is a more functional objective of this invention to prevent patient and user tissue burn, to prevent undesirable noise and to extend the life of the equipment involved.
A further object of this invention is to provide all of the above structural and functional objects in a mechanism in which can be employed not only with newly manufactured ultrasonic dental devices but also can be used as a retrofit on devices in the field so that these objectives can be obtained without having to replace all of the large number of such devices that are presently being used.
A further object of this invention is to provide these advantages by a mechanism which is inexpensive so that it will be adopted in this field and by a mechanism which does not increase the maintenance required for the scaling instrument and thus does not increase the down time factor. It is important that these problems be solved by a mechanism which neither introduces other problems nor requires greater skill and care than is now required to maintain the water nozzle properly positioned and properly aligned.